Daria Bhatia

Name: Dhairyalakshmi “Daria” Bhatia

Gender: Female

Age: 17

Grade: 12

School: George Hunter High School

Hobbies and Interests: Acting, Dancing, Singing, Mathematics, YouTube

Appearance: Daria has a heart-shaped face and smooth brown skin largely untroubled by teenage acne. Her nose is long but narrow, and flares out a little to the end. Her large, reddish-brown eyes are set high up in her face, above a full-lipped mouth. She has not had a haircut in years, so her wavy dark hair falls nearly down to her waist. She has a busty, wide-hipped figure. She is 5'6”, and weighs in at 161 lbs. She tends to favor tops with simple, comfortable fabrics and skirts, liking the way the clothing flares for dramatic gestures. On the day of the abduction she was wearing a white blouse and a long yellow-and-red plaid skirt over red Convers.

Biography: Dhairyalakshmi “Daria” Bhatia is the headstrong child of Sayagi and Parvati Bhatia, first-generation immigrants from India to the US. Parvati Chapekar is a gifted programmer, and won a lucrative scholarship to the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, MO, for computer engineering when she was still living in India. With their parents' blessing, she and her childhood friend Sayagi Bhatia were married, and moved with him to the United States. Daria was born only a few short months after the move.

From her birth, Daria was a willful, expressive child. She cried often in her cradle to draw the attention of her parents, and as soon as she could crawl and toddle, she repeatedly escaped her parents' supervision. This love of adventure and attention continued well into her school days: Daria was often a disruptive influence in class, talking when she was not supposed to. She was always eager to perform, whether in the classroom or on the playground. This tendency to act out was not helped by how much the Bhatias moved: for the first decade of her time in America, Parvati moved wherever work took her, working in software development at firms small and large in St. Louis, Seattle, and Atlanta. Daria learned quickly to make a big impression and establish her place early.

Her performative habits were fed by her father. Sayagi, much less comfortable than his wife with America and its culture, was Daria's main caretaker through most of her early childhood, working nights at a local gas station so he could stay awake with Daria while his wife was at school. Sayagi is intelligent and artistic, but his wife has always been the primary breadwinner, and what odd jobs Sayagi has worked through his time in America have, like his first job at the gas station, largely emphasized flexible hours to make sure he was available to take of care, including work as pressman in St. Louis and evening shifts at a movie theater in Atlanta. He currently works as a library assistant in Chattanooga.

Because they spent so much time together, he introduced his daughter to some of his favorite Bollywood films. Daria fell in love with the bombastic style of these movies, and from there started to explore other kinds of musical theater—whether classic Disney animation like Aladdin and The Lion King, or 50s musicals like Singing in the Rain and The King and I.

But her love of Bollywood is as far as her love of Indian culture goes. Even as a child, Daria was rarely comfortable with her family's trips to India, and as she got older her discomfort only grew. Like her mother, Daria took quickly to American life, even if her race and nationality could sometimes be a source of scorn and derision from some of her classmates. This mockery and a general discomfort with her heritage ultimately led her to abbreviate her name to Daria, which caused a serious fight with her father. Sayagi is a practicing Hindi, and insisted on her long name at her birth. For Daria, this name was a sign of a culture she felt no connection with, which always more a burden than a source of pride.

Parvati, never particularly religious, does not mind her daughter's disdain for the country of her parents' birth. However, she takes issue with Daria's dreams of acting and music. Parvati is a talented, hardworking, and practical individual, who moved to Chattanooga mainly for the security and the stability of the position offered to her in Chattanooga. She sees Daria's dreams as deeply unrealistic, and their strong relationship was troubled by constant fighting in Daria's early adolescence when her mother refused to allow her to participate in school plays, musicals, and local productions.

After several such fights, they were able to reach a compromise, in large part thanks to Sayagi acting as mediator in defense of his daughter's passions. The compromise was simple; at school, Daria was allowed to participate in any elective or extracurricular as long as she maintained a suitable GPA and balanced the extracurriculars of her choosing with ones of her mother's (for instance, participating in a school play in exchange for signing up as an elementary school tutor).

In spite of their friction, Daria has inherited her mother's talent for mathematics. She demonstrated this ability even in her earliest classes, testing at genius-levels in spatial reasoning and above-average in abstract reasoning. She has risen quickly through her math classes, to the point where she is now taking college math courses at Chattanooga State Community College and competes in Mathalon and Quizbowl events at George Hunter High. The same performative drive that attracts her to the stage also serves her well in math; she loves the intellectual thrill of solving a difficult problem, working it over from every possible angle with every tool at her disposal.

Daria is also deeply comfortable with computers, having spent most of her life working with them. Her mother was always eager to share her expertise, and allowed Daria limited, closely-monitored computer access from an early age. As she grew older, Daria's interest in theater and computers combined into her running a YouTube channel with a small number of subscribers, focused on making film projects with her friends, including a few abortive musicals and one episode of a Slenderman-inspired found-footage piece.

One of the reasons for the sporadic nature of her Youtube channel is how densely packed her schedule is. Between commitments to choir, show choir, and whatever plays she manages to squeeze in between the other obligations, it is not uncommon for Daria's days to run from 7am to 10pm. Her parents did buy her a car for her sixteenth birthday, in part to make it easier on all their schedules by giving Daria the ability to travel by herself, but that has only led to denser schedules facilitated by the ease with which she can travel.

Daria is a feverishly hard worker when something engages her, but has little patience for subjects which bore her. Her History and Social Studies grades rarely rise above a B-, as that is the minimum grade she is allowed to have in order to continue taking her preferred extracurriculars. Her English grades are more erratic; Daria is a competent writer and a voracious reader when something grips her attention, but will pointedly avoid readings she dislikes, instead looking up cliffnotes and online summaries to complete any relevant assignments. She adores the works of Shakespeare, as well as a great deal of poetry and character-driven romance, ranging from Wuthering Heights to Twilight.

The combination of her dense schedule and her erratic interests means that Daria has a broad but shallow skillset. She can learn choreography quickly, but has little knowledge in dancing outside that; she is a competent tutor in mathematics, but in no other subjects; she learns just enough programming, camerawork, or video-editing to achieve her desired end, and then ceases learning when the project is concluded. Similarly, though she has a lovely soprano singing voice, she has never had formal lessons, and often pushes her voice too far.

Daria's crowded schedule means that most of the friendships and relationships she has have been made in the groups she participates in. Daria can be very willful and demanding, and often acts petty when she is not the center of attention. She has a difficult time putting the needs or wants of others before her own, which has been the cause of more than one friendship deteriorating or prospective relationship failing. However, Daria is also excellent in a crisis, helping to soothe her friends and solve their problems. She will also make great efforts on behalf of those she cares for, orchestrating surprise parties or collecting money from friends and club members for spectacular gifts.

Daria's excellent test scores and well-rounded extracurriculars earned her acceptance to a number of acceptance to a number of universities, including her mother's alma mater, as well as Vandberbilt and UT, Knoxville. Privately, however, Daria has begun looking into moving to either New York or LA, to try and make her dreams of acting a reality. But Daria has not yet had the courage to tell her mother, and start another fight that might destroy their relationship.

Advantages: Daria is charismatic, determined, and intelligent, as well as unafraid of doing difficult work in pursuit of what she desires. She has mental stamina and discipline, and can be extremely goal-oriented. Her selfishness could serve her well by avoiding troublesome entanglements. She also has an instinctive problem-solving mindset, willing to use every tool and avail herself of any perspective in pursuit of solutions.

Disadvantages: Daria's upbringing has left her sheltered and spoiled. Although in adequate physical shape, she has little upper body strength and low endurance. Her trouble putting others' needs before her own will make it difficult for her to maintain friendships and alliances under stress.

Designated Number: Female student No. 056

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Designated Weapon: Pack of instant hand warmers

Conclusion: I don't see this show going for a very long run. Put your acting chops to some good use and play the role of somebody who at least makes it to act 2. - Jim Greynolds

'The above biography is as written by Grim Wolf. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Grim Wolf

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Collected Weapons: Pack of instant hand warmers (assigned weapon)

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Threads
Below is a list of threads containing Daria, in chronological order.


 * INT: DARK ROOM - THE END OF THE WORLD

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